Saturday, February 02, 2008

Just Like That

I am no longer eating red meat. After first reading about exsanguination and then watching the news video of those bastards taunting sick cows to get up so they could be slaughtered for the food chain, well, no friggin' way will I ever eat red meat again. This is going to be hard because I have very bad hypoglycemia and need protein, and have problems with milk and cheese (although I do ingest them anyway). But hey. No way on earth will I willingly participate in that evilness.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't blame you. We still eat some (very little) red meat. It comes from Eastern Oregon where I grew up.I know the ranchers and how they treat their cattle. I can understand why the Hindus think we are crazy to eat something as wonderful as the milk giving cow. S

Factory farming is hideous and evil. That's one reason organic, free-range meat costs more: the animals live well and die humanely, and it costs more to feed an animal a healthy diet and give it room, instead of cramming it in with a thousand others and feeding it slop.

I don't eat a lot of red meat anyway, because I can't digest it, but that's for health reasons, not moral or ethical ones. I'll admit to some issues with the concept of not hurting the cute ones, but having it be okay to kill the not-so-cute ones.

After all, I kill wasps and stinging insects. I'm allergic, lethally so: they sting me, I die. So yes, I could argue self-defense, a "me or them" thing.

But they aren't out to hurt me, they aren't evil, and they have no clue why I'm killing them.

It's tricky ethical ground, methinks. Because if I'm going with "all living things are sacred", then cows shouldn't be any more sacred than wasps or hornets.

Well yes you are right and it is for health reasons that I should eat red meat, but no more! As for the right to live, etc., for all living things, of course that is true, but where do you draw the line? I too am allergic to stinging insects and have the need to eliminate them from my surroundings (and I do, and I hate flies as well, I might add), but what about vegetables, fruits, and grains? They are living things as well. Will we all end up eating ROCKS?

Heh. That's the slippery slope I was talking about: the line becomes one of convenience.

I have Indian friends who won't eat red meat but have no problem eating fish. That, I just don't get. QLF? Is the salmon not as cool as the cow? And why isn't that anti-animism?

I stay away from factory-farmed meat. I pay more for the meat I do buy. I refuse to eat goat - to me, that's a pet, not a food source. I don't eat dogs or cats, either.

But I can't go along with the concept you used, about participating in an evil. Because we *do* have to draw lines, and mine's going to be lines that suit my own personal convenience. And if the entire thing of eating living things is mandatory for survival, then I'm personally going to squirm at the idea of what I'm doing to a broccoli stalk. After all, MIT proved that a rose screams when you pick it, back in the sixties.

Well, ok, maybe if I was a holy woman, or something. But right now, I can't lay claim to that. And any yellowjacket that cruises my ass is getting slain.

John Day.....120 miles south of Pendleton. Now for that NRPS trash bag. That is the ITEM! I thought hot water bottle when I saw it, but I DO think I know what kind of "bag" you are thinking offtssb. ;) S